


Blue like the stars

by dreamiesficfest, stardustchenle



Series: Dear Dream - Dreamies Fic Fest (Second Wave) [17]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Stars, inspired by a real planetarium visit I did when I was a child, mark and jeno are nerds and also kind of confident gays, random space facts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 14:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18606691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiesficfest/pseuds/dreamiesficfest, https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustchenle/pseuds/stardustchenle
Summary: Prompt Number: #DD002In which Jeno is in love with the stars, and Mark falls in love with the starboy.





	Blue like the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marknomin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marknomin/gifts).



Mrs. Kim voice was raised and distinct over the diffused chattering of the classroom, but Mark was planning on paying little to no attention to her. He slumped himself over the desk and eyed the painfully slow clock on the wall in front of him with a sigh, fidgeting and playing with his pencil as he counted the tics and tocs of the clock hands.

“I remind you that next week you'll start your period of school-work experience, and I hope you will all learn greatly from this activity. Mark Lee.”

Mark suddenly whipped his head towards the teacher, brows furrowed in confusion. What did he have to do with the school-work experience? It suddenly dawned on him.  _Oh._

“Mark, it seems like you forgot to apply for any of the jobs on the list, so now you'll have to take the only one that's left. Please come here at the end of the lesson to settle everything,” concluded the teacher. Mark nodded in her direction before she turned away to give some specific indications and advice to the people who had already picked where they were gonna work, unlike him.

He dropped his head face-down on the desk, groaning. How could he have forgotten! He hadn't even remembered to read the list in the first place, so he really didn't know what to expect. Great.

He was already lost in mental images of himself having to work in a coalmine or as a garbage collector when the thread of his thoughts was cut into two by the bell, followed right after by the sound of chairs dragging on the floor and the cocktail of voices of his classmates.

Mark raised from his seat with a sigh and dragged his feet to the front desk, hands buried deep in his jeans pockets. He acknowledged Mrs. Kim briefly before looking down at the papers she slid over to him, reading the words in bold font at the top of the first page.

_Astronomy Observatory And Didactic Museum._

He shrugged his shoulder and raised an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side a bit. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.

 

☆☆☆

 

“The observatory? No way man, that's so cool!” Yukhei told Mark between a bite and the other. “Kun went there for some time to write his big astrophysics research paper for uni.”

Mark nodded, putting some more noodles into his mouth with an hum of agreement before speaking.

“Yeah, it'll be fine, I think. I was surprised to see that was what was left too, but it's probably because everyone wanted to do something with their friends and there was only one place there.” He shrugged.

Yukhei threw him a napkin, motioning towards the sauce at the corner of Mark's lips, and then wiped his own mouth with another one. “Yeah, probably.”

He placed the napkin down. “When are you starting?”

“On Monday, the paper Mrs. Kim gave me said to be there at nine.” Mark put his lunch container back into his school bag and then laid down on the grass with arms folded behind his head and eyes closed, basking in the warm rays of sunshine of that pleasant spring day.

“I'll see how it goes.”

 

☆☆☆

 

He parked his car at the address he had been given and leaned forward over the steering wheel to look at the observatory through the windshield. It didn't look all that big, but it was still a nice building. He vaguely recalled visiting it when he was in elementary school, but didn't remember much.

He took a small backpack from the passenger seat and slung it over his right shoulder as he got out of the car and locked it, sliding then the keys into his jacket pocket. Another look at the building in front of him, and he was pushing open the front door. 

As soon as he entered, the guy at the front desk looked up at him, flashing a smile. ”Good morning, welcome to our observatory. How can I help you?”

The guy was probably a bit shorter than Mark, and looked curious and interested. He seemed like the type of person to have a lot of energy, probably even more than what he could show to a normal customer at nine in the morning. He appeared to be an interesting someone.

Mark got closer to the counter, taking out of his backpack the sheets of paper his school had provided him with and handing them to the guy.

“Oh, uhm, I'm Mark. I'm starting the school-work experience today?” His voice came out more like a question towards the end, but the guy didn't seem to care, talking again right after skimming over the documents quickly.

“Ah, yes, yes, I'll show you everything you need to know in a minute. I'm Ten, by the way,” he interjected, holding a hand out to Mark, who shook it while raising an eyebrow.

“Ten? Like the number?" 

The guy, Ten, chuckled. “Yeah, like the number. My name's kinda long, plus I'm Thai and we usually go by nicknames all the time. Sign here please.”

Mark took the pen and agreement form from him, signing it quickly before giving it back. Ten controlled that everything was in order, put the paper into one of the front desk drawers and then turned to Mark with a smile.

“Okay Mark, let's start your tour.”

He got out from behind the desk and gestured for Mark to follow him into a door right beside him.

“This is the staff room, we have lockers and you can leave your stuff and your jacket in there. Oh, hey Jeno! This is fortunate.”

When they entered the room Mark noticed another guy in there, more or less his age, who was tying his shoes, sitting on a bench near the lockers. The guy, Jeno he supposed, looked up when he heard his name being called, eyes travelling from Ten to Mark, to which he spared a nod of acknowledgement, and then back to Ten. 

“Hey, what's up?”

Ten pointed his thumb towards Mark at his side. “Mark here is new and needs a tour, but it's probably best if someone remains at the front desk. Would you mind showing him and explaining everything he needs to know?”

“Oh, not at all! Don't worry about it.”

“Okay, great.” Ten turned towards Mark, patting his shoulder before leaving. “Have fun you two!”

The boy got up from the bench, shook his head to ruffle his black hair a bit, fixed his bangs with his pinky, and then smoothed the front of the slightly-oversized hoodie he was wearing with his hands. He extended one towards the other, smiling in a way that made Mark feel some warmth blooming in his chest and want to smile in return, so that's what he did as he took the hand in front of him.

“Hey there, I'm Jeno.”

“Mark.”

“Follow me.”

Mark eyed Jeno's side profile intently while the other was leading the way, and concluded that that boy couldn't have been much younger or older than himself, they looked about the same age. He decided there couldn't have been any downsides to his curiosity, so he voiced his next thought.

“Are you here because of school too?”

Jeno turned towards him. “Me?” he asked pointing to his own chest and raising his brows. “Kind of. I was already a volunteer here because I love stars and the universe a lot, so I had been doing this for a while during the afternoon and night. I picked this out of all the options to do something I knew I liked during the morning too, it was kind of natural.”

Mark nodded, then looked down at his own feet with hands buried in his jeans pockets. He really needed to stop walking like that and slumping his shoulder when he didn't know what to do with his hands, he could practically hear his mom's voice at the back of his mind telling him it was gonna mess up his spine. He ignored it for the moment, but still tried to stand a bit straighter.

“Instead I, uhm, know practically nothing about stars, or planets... or space in general, for all that matters.” Mark chuckled embarrassedly, rubbing the nape of his neck with two fingers. “I know that like, Pluto is not a planet anymore, and that the sun is a star that will expand and burn us all one day, but not much more... sorry about that.”

Jeno smiled kindly at him, pushing open the door leading to the part of the building serving as museum. “Don't worry, you're here to learn.”

He held the door open for Mark, motioning for him to walk past him and get inside, garnishing it all with a genuine smile. “Come on, we'll start with the first section for today.”

 

☆☆☆

 

Mark waved his hands around, placing then two fingers on each of his temples. “Okay, let me see if I remember right. Jupiter turns so fast that a day on there is like 10 hours for us, but it takes it a lot, like, 11… point 8, was it? Earth years to have one Jupiter year, right?”

Jeno nodded. “For it to orbit around the sun, yeah. Perfect! Good job.”

Mark suddenly felt giddy, happy to have done well. “Okay then, now what?” he asked, almost jumping on the heels of his feet.

A sparkle appeared in Jeno's eyes. “Now, my favourite part. Take off your shoes.”

He smiled at Mark excitedly and slipped out of his’ before leading Mark, who had complied to what he had been told quickly and placed his shoes into the rack next to the door, into a room bigger than all the ones they had been in before.

Mark spun around slowly once they entered, head and nose raised up and observing everything.

Not that there was much to observe _per se_ , that is.

The room was white and circular, with a cupola-shaped roof and a smooth candid fabric without a single crease covering everything. There were no seats anywhere, only low cushions scattered across the floor into two rows forming two concentric somewhat-circles. In the centre of the room there was a small column, about one meter high, with a white sphere at the top.

Suddenly the lighting of a memory flashed through Mark's mind and he turned towards the other, who was still standing next to the door, with wide eyes. “Wait! I think I saw this when I was a kid, is this…”

Jeno nodded, apparently excited that Mark remembered. Or maybe just excited to show him something he loved. 

“Yep.” Jeno smiled, extending an arm towards the wall at his side and flicking off the light switch next to the door. It took a couple of moments for Mark's eyes to get adjusted to the semi-darkness, but once they did he noticed that Jeno had walked forward and reached the centre of the room, placing a hand over the sphere. He looked at Mark as he bent slightly down.

“Ready?” he asked, and Mark nodded in response. He could feel, hear and see the passion and how much he couldn't wait in Jeno's every move, in his voice, in his eyes. It was so genuine, so pure, so uncorrupted that it left Mark slightly dizzy and almost breathless, heart beating a bit faster inexplicably. 

Jeno pressed a button on the side of the column with a click and suddenly, in a bat of eyelashes, the sky came to be.

Light came from inside the sphere, projecting stars and constellations on the walls of the room. Mark couldn't help but let an amazed “Wow…” escape his lips, and Jeno chuckled in response.

“It's cool, isn't it? The projector inside is connected to the real telescope of the observatory, so we get a new and pretty accurate reconstruction of how the sky looks like at that specific time of the month and year everyday. And it's interactive, so we can move around, zoom and all that.”

Jeno moved the sphere with one hand, making it rotate on himself for a couple of degrees. “This is the Ursa Major, for example.” He used two fingers on the surface of the sphere to zoom in on the constellation like one would do on a touchscreen “And this is the polar star,” he added as he showed Mark where its projection was on the wall with a little red laser pointer.

He zoomed out a little to show most of the constellations again, and Mark decided to test if he was not as hopeless as he originally thought about stars knowledge. He pointed to the wall, looking at Jeno for confirmation after asking: “And that's the Ursa Minor, right?”

Jeno followed the direction of Mark's outstretched arm with his eyes, and then lit up, nodding and looking back at the other. “Yes! And look, you see this?” He pointed to another group of stars nearby with the laser pointer, and once Mark hummed shortly in response while staring at the wall intently, he continued.

“That's the constellation of the dragon. For some time during the year its tail gets in between the Ursa Major and Minor, you see how close it is? According to the legend, it's because the dragon wants to separate the mama bear and her little cub, so it tries to sneak in there.”

Mark turned back to him. “Oh wow, that's so cool! I had never heard of that before. Is it a well-known story?”

Jeno thought for a moment. “Mmmh, not that much, I think. Maybe because it doesn't work everywhere, for example in some parts of Europe the two Ursas are also called big and small cart, or some native americans tribes saw the Major as a spoon, and that’s why it’s called the Big Dipper too.”

“Oh, I can see the spoon better than a bear, honestly,” Mark commented.

“Yeah same here, most constellations need a lot of imagination to see what they'd be supposed to look like. But the story's cool, so.” Jeno shrugged, before moving the sphere again and pointing to a group of three stars, one next to the other and forming a slightly curved line.

“You know how this one’s called?”

Mark thought about it for a couple of seconds while playing with his bottom lip, he was sure he remembered something. “That's… Orion's belt, right?” he tried, looking at the other and tilting his head a bit to the side.

Jeno nodded excitedly. “Yes! See, you said you didn't know anything but you're doing great.”

Mark felt his face get hotter and he stared down at his feet, shifting the weight of his body from one to the other. “Uh, I only remember it because a friend once told me he always saw those three stars when he went out on his balcony and that he called them like the three caravels of Columbus and I looked it up because I was curious.”

When he looked up, Jeno was smiling at him kindly. “Still, you remembered it and that's what matters.”

Mark scrambled for something to say to not feel so embarrassed anymore, cheeks and neck slightly warm for no apparent reason. But he had always been bad at receiving compliments and at not letting them affect him too much, after all.

“What about… signs constellations?”

“Oh! What do you want to know?”

“Uhm, I don't know. Uuhhh… are they recognisable like this too?”

Jeno nodded. “Yeah more or less, after some practice I can spot most of them quickly, or remember where they should be in a certain period of the year, at least. What sign are you?”

“Leo.”

Jeno squinted his eyes, looking at the sphere and talking under his breath. “Leo, leo… Ah! There.” He finished the sentence in a louder volume and turned around to point the laser at a part of the wall almost behind him, to which Mark had to turn around too. “I would tell you what its position these days means, but I don't know anything about astrology, I stop at astronomy.”

“Nah man, don't worry it's fine,” Mark reassured him. “What are you, instead?”

“Taurus,” Jeno answered. “Which should be… right there,” he finished, moving the little red dot of light to another part of the ceiling.

Mark was still looking at the group of stars as he asked Jeno: “And when is that?”

“Oh, right now, actually. I was born on the 23rd.”

Mark whipped his head towards him. “Of April?” Jeno nodded. “Man, that's like a week away! I'll remember to wish you happy birthday when it's time. How many years?”

Jeno huffed a smile. “Thank you. And nineteen.”

“Oh, so you're a year younger than me,” he commented without much thought.

There was a moment of silence, in which Mark came back to looking at that little version of the universe he felt like he was floating in.

“For the first days you'll probably only take care of the front desk or the part of the museum we visited before about the solar system, you can follow a couple of guided visits any of us make if you want to make sure you remember everything.”

 _Oh_. Mark had forgotten that he was there because of school and Jeno wasn't just explaining him things because they were interesting, and that's what he told the younger while rubbing the nape of his neck.

Jeno laughed. “Well, that's good! It means you liked what I was telling you, and that's nice,” he said as he bent to the side to turn off the projector.

“Yeah…” replied Mark, thinking of the passion he had seen in Jeno's eyes while he explained something, whenever Mark gave a right answer or even just when he looked at the galaxies and universe around them.

Jeno started to lead the way out, followed by Mark, and turned around to look at him after opening the door the first couple of centimetres. He smiled at him. “You'll see, if you have fun this will all pass in the bat of an eyelash,” he said before exiting.

Mark found a stray thought flashing through his mind for a moment.

_What if I'd like it to not go by that quickly?_

 

☆☆☆

 

Mark rested one cheek against his left palm, elbow propped up on the front desk. He picked up a pencil and started playing with it, lost in thoughts. He had been at the observatory since 8, and it was now 10. Ten had arrived shortly before after his only uni class of the day and Mark was waiting for him to come out of the changing rooms.

He heard a noise from behind him, so he raised his head slightly and looked back to see Ten walk in and get in front of him while fixing the shirt he was wearing. It was a light and soft grey colour, with some writings and the observatory logo in the front. 

“That looks nice, is it new?” asked Mark, straightening his back.

Ten met his eyes and nodded, showing the shirt off. “Yeah! It’s a new idea they had to make us easy to spot during visits and stuff, especially with kids. Nice, isn’t it? There is one for you too in the backroom, the size should be right.” He pointed a thumb towards the door next to the desk, and Mark nodded. “I'll go change later.”

Mark leaned over the wooden counter again, less dishevelled than before. “Now that you're here, what's the plan for today?”

Ten leaned over the desk too from the opposite side and dived down face-first, jumping a bit and wiggling while letting out a muffled “oof” to be able to grab the notebook on the lower table behind the counter. Mark thought Ten could've just asked him to pass it over, but decided to not say anything.

Ten hopped back on the ground like the fact that he was sprawled on the front desk just moments before was the most normal thing (maybe it was) and started to flip through the notebook, licking his pointer finger when he needed help in turning a page or two.

“Let's see… Jeno should be almost done with that elementary school class in the planetarium, and then I'm gonna take them to the galaxy and planets part of the museum, they're gonna love that.” He furrowed his brows slightly, reading some more. “Mmmh… we don't have any other visits ‘till after lunch, so you two can just chill here to see if anyone walks in. I'll go take the class, you can come and tell Jeno.”

“Yeah, sure!”

Shortly after, Ten and Mark were standing outside the planetarium, waiting until the doors opened and a bunch of little kids flooded out accompanied by what Mark assumed was the teacher telling the children to put their shoes back on, and by Jeno's voice saying goodbye as he waved at the kids from inside the white room.

Mark walked over to him once the doorway was a bit less crowded, careful to not step over anyone's feet. Jeno flashed him a smile once he noticed him. “Mark! What's up?”

He explained how they had the rest of the morning free, but stopped and took a step back when he noticed a kid about seven or eight years old approaching Jeno shily from behind him.

Jeno appeared confused at Mark's actions at first, but his expression quickly changed after the little kid tugged on one of the legs of his pants and he looked down, noticing him. He crouched down, presumably to be at eye level with the kid, and asked in a soft voice: “Hey, can I help you with something?”

The kid looked at Jeno with wide eyes, twisting his own hands together, and nodded exaggeratedly.

Jeno smiled reassuringly. “What's your name?”

“Chenle.”

“Okay then Chenle, I'm Jeno. What do you need help with?”

The little kid fidgeted with his hands again and looked away as he answered: “Uhm… Is the dragon gonna take me away from Johnny, Jeno?”

Chenle looked for real scared, and Mark noticed how Jeno moved a hand on one of the kid’s shoulders and smiled calmly again.

“Don't worry, it won't. Who's Johnny?”

Chenle widened his eyes again and pointed at the people outside the door. “Teacher! He always says he's a big bear and we're all little bears! I don't want the dragon to come and take us!”

The kid's bottom lips started to tremble slightly as if he was about to cry. Jeno must have had noticed it too, since he spoke softly again before anything could happen: “Hey, hey, don't cry. I promise you it will never happen, you have my word! That was just a story and you're safe here, don't worry.”

Chenle seemed to have calmed down a bit. “Promise?”

Jeno smiled, intertwining his pinky finger with Chenle's and moving them a couple of times from side to side. “Promise. Now let's go back to Johnny, I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing too, come on.”

He stood up again and stretched his hand out for Chenle, who took it and held it until Mark saw the two of them arrive in front of the teacher, who listened with furrowed brows to what Jeno was telling him before widening his eyes and bending down to pick Chenle up. He said something to the kid that made him smile wide and nod energetically, which made both him and Jeno look happier and revealed.

Mark felt warmth bloom in his chest and started smiling as well, not realising he was doing it until Jeno walked back to him and questioned him about it.

Mark scrolled his head. “Nothing.” He nodded in the direction of the children following Ten and moving to the museum exposition while he still looked at Jeno. “That was just really cute.”

The other smiled too while biting his own bottom lip lightly, and darted his eyes downwards before getting them back on Mark again.

Quickly, he grabbed a surprised Mark's wrist and started walking towards the door, saying: “Come on, the front desk needs us.”

Mark followed him, looking down at the hand around his wrist and wondering to himself if he had imagined the tinge of colour on Jeno's cheeks.

 

☆☆☆

 

Jeno adjusted the cuffs of the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing, quite oversized despite being worn under the observatory t-shirt they all had. The long sleeves were enough to graze over just past Jeno's knuckles, giving him a beginning hint of sweater paws that was definitely adorable.

Mark turned his head forward to look at the ceiling of the staff room from the bench he was laying on. He threw in the air one of the small foam balls they sometimes used for interactive laboratories with children, specifically a moon about the size of an apple, and caught it back when it came down.

“Tell me, starboy,” The moon flew up and then got back in his hand again, “What’s the cool space fact for today?”

He heard Jeno questioning voice replying to him from the bench on the other side of the room. 

“Starboy?”

“Yeah.” Mark shrugged as much as he could while laying down, still looking at the ceiling. The moon got up, and then down.

“I like it,” Jeno said simply after a moment, not a hint of mocking in his voice but rather a genuine and happy tone. “What kind of fact did you want to know?”

“I don’t know, anything,” Mark said as he threw the ball again, but he miscalculated and didn’t manage to catch it. He looked as it bounced and rolled on floor ‘till it got closer to Jeno’s feet, who bent down and stretched a bit to reach it and pick it up.

Jeno looked at the little foam moon in his hand, turning it around with his fingers while pursuing his lips and letting out a pensieve hum.

“Oh, the moon is upside down compared to the way we see it in the other hemisphere.”

“Wait, for real?!” Mark was so surprised that he threw himself up to be seated on the wooden bench, looking at the other with wide eyes. Jeno nodded, smiling.

“That's so cool! Lemme look for a pic real quick. It makes sense though, why did I never think of this?”

He took his phone out of his backpack in the bottom locker next to him and started typing away while he heard Jeno chuckle and get up.

Mark felt him sit next to where he was and rest his chin on Mark's shoulder to look at the screen, and he tried to not think too much about the blush he felt spreading on his cheekbones.

He focused on the picture on his phone again, admittedly really interesting and a bit trippy to think about. “That's so cool, wow." 

“Yeah… I like the moon a lot because it's so close and it seems like we'd know everything about it by now, but it's always so different and pretty and full of surprises. It gives me chills.”

Jeno's voice was low but so close, right below Mark's ear, and it sent a shiver down the older’s spine. 

Mark hummed. “Tell me about it.”

 

☆☆☆

 

Ten stretched his back with a groan, hands on his hips, and then rested an arm over his head. “Phew, I'm exhausted.”

Mark straightened up too, leaning his weight on the broom he was holding. “You can go home if you want, we're practically finished here.”

“Are you sure?”

Mark shrugged. “Yeah. It's late for you already, don't you have uni tomorrow?”

Ten nodded. “Yeah, morning classes. It's cool that you remembered! Is it okay if I leave you the keys and you close everything when you're done? You know what to do, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, don't worry.”

"Cool. Go tell Jeno too, he was sweeping the other side of the museum last time I saw him.” He reached in his back pocket, took out the observatory keys and tossed them at Mark. “See ya tomorrow!”

Mark raised a hand to say goodbye. “See ya!”

After Ten got out of the door and he checked he had cleaned everything he needed to, Mark put the broom back in the storage cabinet in the staff room and went to check on his other workmate.

He looked around the small museum of the observatory at first, calling out for Jeno in every room and only receiving the sound of his own feet hitting the linoleum floor as a response. He smiled when he reached the planetarium and saw a broom and dustpan right outside the door, he had a feeling the younger would've been there.

He open the door carefully without really knowing why, but he was glad he did when he saw that the lights were off, the projector was on and Jeno was laying down near the middle of the room facing the starry ceiling with arms folded behind his head. 

He turned towards the door after it closed and nodded to Mark with a small smile as a greeting.

Mark had been wanting to say something as well, but he felt his “hey” die in his throat after he looked at the other. It was dark and he couldn't see everything, but he had no doubts about one thing: Jeno was wearing _glasses_.

The younger had gotten back to looking at the ceiling shortly after acknowledging the other, so Mark found himself staring through the darkness at Jeno's side profile, at the curve of his lips, at the light glasses perched on top of his nose.

He got back to his senses when he focused on that same profile turning to look at him. 

“Mark? Are you okay?”

Mark didn't answer, but rather grabbed a pillow from the floor, walked to Jeno and sat down cross-legged beside him.

“I didn't know you wore glasses.”

“Oh! Yeah, I usually have lenses in but I take them off when it gets late, I always carry what I need with me just in case.”

 _You look good_  wanted to say Mark, and he really meant it. Regular Jeno was good looking already, but Jeno wearing glasses was breathtaking. The projection of the stars reflected on the lenses, making his eyes look brighter.

“I like them,” Mark said. _I like you_ , the realisation hit him all of a sudden.

“What are you doing here?” 

Jeno was facing up again. “I like to come here whenever, or when I have to think. It's like stargazing with whatever weather or time, and I can see stars that I wouldn't be able to outside because of light pollution and stuff. It's like my own little sky.”

Mark nodded even if he wasn't sure the other could see him.

“Wanna know another fact?” Jeno asked, looking up at him. God, his eyes were so _bright_.

Mark smiled. “Sure. Hit me with one, starboy.”

Jeno smiled too at the nickname. “Alright, mmhh… blue stars are actually hotter than stars that look red to us.”

“Oh! Really?”

“Yeah, think of it as like a stove. The heat there is a lot more than in a normal fire and the flame looks blue.”

“Oh yeah, I didn't think of that.” 

There was a moment of silence in which Jeno looked at the stars projected on the walls and Mark looked at Jeno, before glancing at the watch on his wrist.

“Hey, it's almost ten already. Do you wanna go somewhere?”

Jeno sat up and then got on his feet. “Yeah!” He quickly moved to turn on the lights looked then at Mark. “Let's go!”

The projector in the middle of the room was turned off now, but Mark could swear that in Jeno's eyes the stars were still there.

Not even five minutes later they were outside with their maybe-too-light spring jackets on, a black denim one for Jeno and one of those half denim-half grey hoodie for Mark, waiting for the latter to finish locking the observatory main door.

As soon as he checked it couldn't be opened anymore and pocketed the keys, he felt Jeno grabbing his hand, so he turned towards him.

Jeno had a sparkle in his gaze when he looked back at the older. “Come on,” he breathed out excitedly, raising his eyebrows.

He started running down the street, hand clasped tightly in Mark's and the sound of their steps hitting the sidewalk resounding in the air.

Fifteen minutes, a panting visit at McDonald's and two boxes of chicken nuggets later, Jeno was finishing his coke while Mark and him walked side by side calmly.

The younger gestured for Mark to take the drink too if he wanted, but the other just scrolled his head. “Nah I'm good, thanks. You finish it.”

Jeno shrugged and sucked in the last sip through the straw, throwing the paper cup in the nearest bin right after and turning towards Mark, walking backwards with bouncy steps. “Now?”

Mark smiled at him. “I don't know, walk around a bit more if that's okay for you? Or do you need to go home?” 

Jeno bounced next to him, facing forward again. “Not at all. We have all the time in the world.”

That made Mark think of something, so he quietly took his phone out of his jacket pocket and put on a song, not raising the volume up too much but keeping it loud enough that they could still hear it.

Jeno let out a hum of agreement when he presumably recognised the tune, starting to move his shoulders and hands on time with the beat of the first verse of the song.

He hummed along the pre-chorus as well while Mark looked at him fondly and started to quietly sing the words:

 

_“We can run down the street_

_with stars in our eyes,_

_we can tear down this town_

_in the dark of the night._

_Just open the door,_

_we've got time on our side,_

_we can make it out alive…”_

 

Jeno glanced at him and then jumped on the low wall next to the sidewalk when it was time for the chorus, closing his eyes and opening his arms as he started to dramatically sing along too:

 

_“Hey, we're taking on the world!_

_I'll take you where you wanna go._

_Pick you up if you fall to pieces,_

_let me be the one to save you…”_

 

Mark smirked and jumped on the low wall as well, finishing the chorus at the top of his lungs:

 

_“Break the plans we had before,_

_let's be unpredictable!_

_Pick you up if you fall to pieces,_

_let me be the one to save you…”_

 

They kept moving to the rhythm for the rest of the song, balancing on the wall to avoid falling and looking at each other while their voices and laughters echoed in the empty street.

Mark hopped down at the last chorus and put his phone in his chest pocket, music coming out a bit more muffled but still clear. “Come on,” he told Jeno as he gestured for him to get on his back so that Mark could give him a piggyback ride.

The younger complied, and Mark took him by surprise by taking off running, although wobbling quite a lot due to the weight. For that reason he didn't last a lot, slowing down shortly after the song finished.

“Alright, get down, I can't do it anymore,” he said between heavy breaths, and Jeno got back on the ground with a twinkling giggle that oh, sounded so _heavenly_.

“Thank you.”

The two of them kept laughing and panting as they stumbled to a nearby bench, flopping down on it when they reached it and looking at the night sky above them. There weren't nearly as many stars as the ones in the planetarium, but Mark found the atmosphere magical nonetheless.

A few seconds after he had regained his breath, he heard Jeno speak again.

“I've got another space fact for you.”

There was a hint of mischief in Jeno's voice that left Mark confused, but also intrigued. He turned towards the younger, lifting his brows questioningly. 

“Another?”

Jeno turned to look at him as well. “Yep,” he answered, accentuating the “P” at the end.

“Okay then, what is it?”

Jeno smirked, before moving his face extremely close to Mark's.

“It's bad luck to not kiss someone under the stars.”

He had a glint in his gaze, and Mark glanced at his lips. He breathed out his answer, looking up in Jeno's eyes again.

“And would you like to do something about it?”

Jeno's smile grew wider. “Very.”

He leaned forward, attaching his lips to Mark's softly. They were warm and soft, just slightly puckered, and Mark felt the air being knocked out of his lungs.

He leaned back after what felt like three lifespans of a supernova, or was it a pulsar? Which one lived the longest? and Mark chased him, kissing him once again.

They broke apart and Jeno leaned his forehead against Mark's, taking his hand and nudging his leg. “What are you thinking about?”

Mark stayed silent for a moment, placing his other hand over Jeno's too so that he was holding it between both of his’.

“I feel very blue right now,” he whispered, and he hoped, so hoped that Jeno understood him.

It seemed like he did, because he chuckled and pecked the other on the lips again, to which Mark answered by leaving a quick kiss on Jeno's nose.

The younger smiled. “Should I call you starboy too, then? Or just my star?”

Mark whined. “Ugh, that's so cheesy… I didn't take you for the cheesy type.”

Jeno smirked again. “Maybe you made me this way, uh?”

“Stoooop…” Mark groaned, burying his head in the crook of Jeno's neck as the other chuckled and used his free hand to rub Mark's back.

“Mmph, I'm regretting this already…”

“You aren't.”

Mark turned his head, leaving it to lean on Jeno's shoulder as he drew meaningless drawings in the other's chest with his finger.

“Well you're right, I'm not,” He agreed before hitting the middle of Jeno's shirt with his pointer finger as he teased, jokingly: “But don't give me any reason to, starboy.”

Another chuckle spread above them, and Mark imagined it to reach far up until it tickled the stars.

“I would never.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Notes from the Author: the song they sing is "Unpredictable" by 5 seconds of summer.  
> Hope the person it was for enjoyed this! ☆


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